a digital codex of contemporary pan-american writing

Contributors’ Notes, No. 20

Elizabeth Jacobson is the author of a chapbook, A Brown Stone (Dancing Girl Press), a full-length collection, Her Knees Pulled In (Tres Chicas Books), and Are the Children Make Believe? (forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press, 2017). She directs the WingSpan Poetry Project which conducts poetry classes at local shelters. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in the American Poetry Review, Hinchas de Poesia, Indolent Books, Orion Magazine, Ploughshares and Plume. She has had residencies at Atlantic Center for the Arts and Herekeke.

Ernesto Noboa y Caamaño (1889-1927) was an Ecuadorian poet and member of the “Generación decapitada” (The Decapitated Generation). His poetry shows the influence of Samain, Verlaine, and Baudelaire. Most of his poetry was collected in a single volume, Romanza de las Horas (Romance of the Hours), published in 1922. He is one of the most widely read poets in Ecuador.

Jonathan Simkins lives in Denver, Colorado. His second chapbook, This Is The Crucible, appears in the first quarterly issue of The Lune (The Lune, 2017). His first chapbook, Translucent Winds, an ekphrastic collaboration with artist Justin Ankenbauer, was published by Helikon Gallery & Studios in 2016. His poems have appeared most recently in Crack The Spine and Visitant.

Natalia Sucher (aka cal “danger” juliet) is a translator, artist, and poet who lives and teaches in North Philadelphia. Cal has been working on an epic screenpoem about the national collapse of u.s. for about 4 years now and is currently taking life drawing and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in order to illustrate the poem, fragments of which are available on-line.

Sergio A. Ortiz is the founding editor of Undertow Tanka Review. He is a two-time Pushcart nominee, a four-time Best of the Web nominee, and 2016 Best of the Net nominee. He received second place in the 2016 Ramón Ataz annual poetry competition, sponsored by Alaire Publishing House. He is currently working on his first full-length collection of poems, “Elephant Graveyard.”

Marc Vincenz has published nine collections of poetry; his latest is Sibylline (Ampersand Books, 2016). He is the translator of several German- French- and Romanian-language poets, including the Herman Hesse Prize winner, Klaus Merz, Jacques Chessex and Ion Monoran. He has published eleven collections of translations. Recent publications, include: The Nation, Ploughshares, Raritan, Solstice, diode and World Literature Today. He is co-editor of Fulcrum and Plume, publisher and co-founder of MadHat Press and Plume Editions, and lives in Williamstown, MA.

Ari Wolff‘s poems have appeared in publications such as The Offing, Whiskey Island, Vinyl, Storm Cellar, and Lime Hawk, among others. She lives in upstate New York where she is a youth worker and sexual health educator.

Marina Carreira is a Luso-American writer from the Ironbound area of Newark, NJ, a working-class, immigrant section of Brick City. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University, and is co-curator of “Brick City Speaks,” a genrefluid monthly reading series and open mic in Newark. Marina’s first chapbook, I Sing to That Bird Knowing It Won’t Sing Back, was published by Finishing Line Press in April 2017. Her work is featured in Paterson Literary Review, The Acentos Review, The Writing Disorder, Naugatuck River Review, Writers of the Portuguese Diaspora: An Anthology, The Fem, Rock & Sling, Bluestockings Magazine, THE FEM, Paper Nautilus, Piff Magazine, Cahoodaloodaling, LUNA LUNA Magazine, Pittsburgh Poetry Review and The Harpoon Review. She lives in Union, NJ with her two daughters.

Asdrubal Quintero is a Latinx poet serving as an AmeriCorps Member in New Orleans. He’s planning on continuing to serve on the Corps in New York City. He’s currently reading Ron Padgett and Gary Soto. Other poems can be found at Crab Fat Magazine, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Collapsar, and Birds Piled Loosely. Follow him on twitter @asdrubalq.

Jenny Irizary is currently working on a memoir about growing up along the Russian River in Northern California. Her work has been published in Sick Lit, Squalorly, District Lit, Communion, Lavender Review, and other journals. Her poem, “If You Want Any More Proof She’s Not Puerto Rican,” was the winner of Green Briar Review’s 2016 poetry contest.

Madeleine Beckman is a poet, fiction, and nonfiction writer. She is the recipient of awards and grants from, among other places, Poetry Society of America, New York Foundation for the Arts, Heinrich Böll Cottage, Ireland; Fundación Valparaíso, Spain; and Zvona i Nari, Croatia. Her poetry collections include Hyacinths from the Wreckage (Serving House Books), No Roadmap, No Brakes (Red Bird Chapbooks), and Dead Boyfriends (Linear Arts Books). Her work has been published in journals, anthologies, and online. Madeleine is Contributing Editor for the Bellevue Literary Review and Agora: Literature and Arts Journal (both NYU School of Medicine). She teaches Narrative and Reflective Writing at NYU School of Medicine in the Division of Medical Humanities. See more at her website.

Mercedes Lawry has published poetry in such journals as Poetry, Nimrod,Prairie Schooner, Harpur Palate, Natural Bridge, and others. Thrice-nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she’s published two chapbooks, most recently Happy Darkness. She’s also published short fiction, essays and stories and poems for children and lives in Seattle.

Valerie Jeremijenko holds a PhD from Deakin University’s Creative Arts and Communications Department, an MFA from Arizona State University in Creative Writing, and a BA (Hons) from Queensland University in English, Drama and Religion. She is also the founder, owner and director of Yama Yoga Studios in Doha, Qatar and of Yama Yoga Retreat Center in Pcheliste Bulgaria, just outside of Veliko Tarnovo. Her book, How We Live our Yoga was published by Beacon Press in 2001; her short stories have appeared in Grasslands Review and Hayden’s Ferry Review. Currently she serves as Associate Dean of Students at VCUQuatar.

MK Ahn‘s writing has appeared in FENCE, Kori Anthology of Korean American Fiction (Beacon Press), The Adoption Reader (Seal Press), Cantaraville, Prick of the Spindle, The Princeton Review, and The Minneapolis Star Tribune; she has won awards from the Jerome Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Loft Literary Center, Transpacific Magazine, and the MoonRabbit Review. She has also made award-winning films that have been screened internationally, and is currently teaching at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea.

Ana Hurtado was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela, and grew up in Quito, Ecuador. She is a recent graduate of Iowa State University’s MFA program in Creative Writing & Environment. Her work has been published in RHINO, Azahares, Word Riot, TinderBox Poetry Journal and more.

Beata Wehr is an award winning visual artist and educator from Warsaw, Poland. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, traveling back to Europe every year. She graduated from Warsaw University in Poland with an M.A. degree in art history and from University of Arizona with an M.F.A. in painting. She paints and creates artists’ books and mixed media objects examining in her work ideas of home, place, time, transience and multicultural experiences. Her works were shown in numerous international and national exhibitions and are included in over 60 public collections in the US and abroad. Beata currently teaches at Pima Community College. Thumbnails of her artwork appear as featured images in this issue’s contributions.

Andrea Lambert works in figurative oils, mixed media and collage critically referenced as “kitschy maximalism.” Her work is featured in Angel’s Flight Literary West, Entropy, Hinchas de Poesias, Queer Mental Health and Anodyne Magazine. She has exhibited in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland and San Diego. CalArts MFA. She is the author of Jet Set Desolate, Lorazepam & the Valley of Skin and the chapbook G(u)ilt. Her work has appeared in 3:AM Magazine, The Fanzine, Entropy, HTMLGiant, Queer Mental Health, Angel’s Flight Literary West, Five:2:One Magazine and ENCLAVE. Find her online at andreaklambert.com.